Coin Slot
Issue: 1977 December 035 - Page 9
Coin Slot Magazine - #035 - 1977 - December [International Arcade Museum]
WATLING ROL-A-TOP
TOTAL RESTORATION
by Ben Romano
After hearing numerous stories on how to properly restore Watling Rol-
A-Tops, I decided to learn how Watling originally created their beautiful
Rol-A-Tops.
After doing considerable research on the subject and
recently completing several Rol-A-Top restorations, I have finally
learned the art of restoring Rol-A-Tops to mint condition.
For the sake of simplicity, I am only going to discuss the cosmetic
preparation of the Rol-ATop metal castings. The wood cabinet and
mechanism restoration will therefore be bypassed in this article.
Hopefully along the way I can pass on a few trade secrets to you to
make the restoration easier. The Rol-ATop that I will be discussing
here is an early model with a coin head, coin front casting with a re
movable horn-of-plenty.
Before I move on, let me pass on my first tip. The secret to a successful
restoration is to do everything you can possibly do yourself. Most
platers are somewhat unfamiliar with slot machine castings, so always
strip the castings myself and tell the platers what I want done to avoid
any possible foul-ups. Some palters use harsh chemicals to clean and
strip off old plating which could attack and severly damage the alu
minum casting. So if you don't know your plater very well and how he
does things, don't take unnecessary chances.
A fellow California
collector had his castings etched beyond repair because of this. The
last time I heard from him the poor guy was still looking for castings.
Armed with this knowledge, let's get to work.
Many people disagree on how the casting was originally finished. Some
believe the coin front and horn-of-plenty were plated, and still others
believe they were painted. In actuality, the coin front and horn-of-plen
.com
m
:
u
ty were "brass flashed". f Flashing
rom -m is us a e type of plating which is much
d
e
thinner and delicate ad
ade With this process, the castings did
o than .ar plating.
l
c
n
w buffing
not require o
D any
ww to achieve shiny luster, whereas, plating did.
w
/
Therefore this was
a much quicker process and cost Watling less. I
/
:
ttp
will go into h
this in more detail a little later on in this article.
Remove the removable horn-of-plenty off your Rol-A-Top and set it
© The International Arcade Museum
7
http://www.arcade-museum.com/
.
WATLING ROL-A-TOP
TOTAL RESTORATION
by Ben Romano
After hearing numerous stories on how to properly restore Watling Rol-
A-Tops, I decided to learn how Watling originally created their beautiful
Rol-A-Tops.
After doing considerable research on the subject and
recently completing several Rol-A-Top restorations, I have finally
learned the art of restoring Rol-A-Tops to mint condition.
For the sake of simplicity, I am only going to discuss the cosmetic
preparation of the Rol-ATop metal castings. The wood cabinet and
mechanism restoration will therefore be bypassed in this article.
Hopefully along the way I can pass on a few trade secrets to you to
make the restoration easier. The Rol-ATop that I will be discussing
here is an early model with a coin head, coin front casting with a re
movable horn-of-plenty.
Before I move on, let me pass on my first tip. The secret to a successful
restoration is to do everything you can possibly do yourself. Most
platers are somewhat unfamiliar with slot machine castings, so always
strip the castings myself and tell the platers what I want done to avoid
any possible foul-ups. Some palters use harsh chemicals to clean and
strip off old plating which could attack and severly damage the alu
minum casting. So if you don't know your plater very well and how he
does things, don't take unnecessary chances.
A fellow California
collector had his castings etched beyond repair because of this. The
last time I heard from him the poor guy was still looking for castings.
Armed with this knowledge, let's get to work.
Many people disagree on how the casting was originally finished. Some
believe the coin front and horn-of-plenty were plated, and still others
believe they were painted. In actuality, the coin front and horn-of-plen
.com
m
:
u
ty were "brass flashed". f Flashing
rom -m is us a e type of plating which is much
d
e
thinner and delicate ad
ade With this process, the castings did
o than .ar plating.
l
c
n
w buffing
not require o
D any
ww to achieve shiny luster, whereas, plating did.
w
/
Therefore this was
a much quicker process and cost Watling less. I
/
:
ttp
will go into h
this in more detail a little later on in this article.
Remove the removable horn-of-plenty off your Rol-A-Top and set it
© The International Arcade Museum
7
http://www.arcade-museum.com/
.
Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).